What Hunts In Ruby Twilight
by DragonflyxParodies
Summary: She froze for a moment, a shudder running down her spine. She hated this. Seeing his face change, alien emotions replacing the smile that she knew so well. A dark rendition of the Spirited Away quest-part one of two, two will be posted separately under title 'The Monsters That Hide Within Ruby Twilight'.


She knocked on Django's door, not wanting to disturb him if he was in the middle of anything. Seconds ticked by and he didn't reply. Frowning, she unlocked it with a whispered spell that Principal Sol wasn't supposed to know she had.

Her magic burst from her lips even without her wand-again, it was something Principal Sol didn't know she could do. Summoning magic without a Focus was supposed to be impossible, unless one wanted to create a massive explosion and die in the process.

She spent an exorbitant amount of time in the Tower pouring over the old tomes, learning to craft her own spells and manipulating things she wanted to change. Django was her partner in crime when it came to practicing those spells and incantations. Normally she'd wait to speak to him later, but this…_this _was too important.

They had been crafting an incantation that could, potentially, allow free travel between the different realms without the Gateway of Beginning and End, the only stable connection between her world and the thousands of others out there. Rather than draw the mystical energy from the other realms to create the 'mystery time', as it was commonly called, that sometimes overtook her world, she could manipulate that energy to push herself elsewhere and back. It was their pet project, one they had been working on for nearly two years now. She'd finally solved their last problem-and with it finished the incantation.

Django should have been there to see it, but he had been notably absent for their classes that day. With their final exams fast approaching and graduation immanent, she couldn't believe he would skip. She'd asked around, but even Mr. Oakley, her friend's favorite professor, hadn't seen him.

It was so unlike him. Concern was welling up within her faster than she could dismiss it as paranoia.

"Django?" She fumbled with the lamp by the door for a few moments before managing to pull the chain.

Everything was exactly how it should have been. Neat enough, save perhaps a pool of clothes by his bed and a sink with a couple of dirty dishes…and the utter absence of her friend.

_Where was he?_

She locked the door behind her by reversing the spell she'd used and started the trek home, lost in thought. Was he sick? He'd be at Malia's if he was, though, and she'd already stopped by there to get the ingredients she would need for the upcoming Conjuration class. She hadn't seen him, and the shop was so small…

"Hey, Llen?" Distracted, she turned. It was Jessica, a girl she was not that familiar with. They'd traded notes a couple of times, and she liked the other girl, but they weren't exactly friends.

"Yeah?"

"Principal Sol's looking for you. He sounded really upset-said it's urgent. I…um, I hope everything's alright." Jessica added awkwardly, looking about as uncomfortable as she could get.

Llen prayed everything was okay, and took off running towards the Tower.

This had happened before, being summoned by Sol. Normally she'd be concerned he had discovered the extent of what she could do, or found Django's notes, if he'd left them out on accident. But with his absence…a shiver of fear ran down her spine. Something was truly wrong.

The Tower, a building made of purple brick and multi-colored crystal, looked…stern. She couldn't think of another word to describe it. The building was so infused with magic it had a mind of its own, and often appeared inviting. Now, however, its edges were more defined, the color less vibrant, the shadows thicker.

Her heart fluttered with terror while she pushed the door open.

Principal Sol was waiting for her just inside of it, staring at the massive gothic mirror that had sagged against one of the Tower's walls for as long as she could remember. Its surface was covered in dust and cobwebs, tarnished with age. The bat framing the top of it had its jaws wide open, jagged teeth glittering sharply in lamplight as its wings curled possessively over the corners. It would have been more unnerving, had it not been chipped and cracked with age, ruby eyes dull and one missing entirely.

"Principal Sol?" She asked softly, clenching and unclenching her fingers as she waited for him to respond. He turned to face her with a start.

He was a large, imposing man. Technically a Fey-a race of humanoid creatures with fantastic features-he had frightened her dearly when she'd first met him. He carried with him a presence that, if he was angry enough, could almost suffocate her. Despite the fact his face was a golden disk mirroring the stylized stonework of a sun she'd seen on the various artifacts Mr. Vlad, her favorite professor collected, he was cold, and she did not fully trust him.

Django himself was a faunus, a humanoid wolf. As far as Llen knew, she was the first and only human to ever live in their town. Their friendship was an odd thing-although Reginald, the Fey that was the closest thing she had to a father, supported it, most others didn't like it.

"Where's Django?" Her voice shook, despite her best efforts to keep it from doing so. Sol's gaze softened and he took a step forward.

"Where is he?" She said again, the force in her voice shocking even her.

"That's why I called you, Llen." He sounded sympathetic, but there was a severity to his voice that made her fear blossom into terror.

"What happened?"

"…Have you ever heard of being spirited away?"

Her gaze automatically went to the bookshelf behind him, to a ragged brown spine, the blood draining from her face.

"Only a little bit." She whispered, voice barely audible.

Sol was telling her something from another realm had _kidnapped_ her best friend. Something had deliberately sought out Django, and _taken_ him.

And she might not get him back.

"We don't know much more than you've read, I'm afraid, but Django has been taken."

"Why?" She breathed. Principal Sol's expression grew grave. He gestured towards the center of the Tower and she turned. There was a large circle of runes drawn in black and grey chalk on the floor where the intelligent books Sol had deemed civilized enough to interact with the students usually sat chained. Her eyes widened at the sight of the circle.

"I suspect that someone wants your incantation, Llen. This piece of magic is…well, it would give a number of creatures locked in other realms a way to escape. Who have you told?" His voice went absolutely hard, a shocking difference from his musings only a second ago. She took an involuntary step back.

"N-No one. Django and I never told anyone. I left my notes out when I went to find him just now but…that's it."

"Are you sure? Could he have told anyone-"

"No. Django wouldn't lie to me, Principal Sol." She said sharply, unable to keep the coldness out of her voice. He ignored it, studying her critically for a moment before he stepped around her.

"Come, then. I can send you after him, but I can't say where exactly it will be that you'll end up. You may want your wand out before you go and…be prepared." He said, tone businesslike. She glared at him, angry that he would question her closest friend and angry that he was being so cold about this. It didn't surprise her-Sol was always impersonal, always distant, no matter what or who it was-but she loathed it then, at that moment, more than she ever had before.

She did obey him, however. She whispered a command and a staff appeared, a thin piece of golden metal shaped like a jagged lightning bolt. It wasn't her favorite, but it was the one most attuned to offensive spells, and Sol expected her to use a Focus. Then she stepped into the center of the circle, clutching it tightly.

She _had_ to find Django. He _had_ to be alright.

"We need blood." She said softly. He nodded and produced a knife from his ornate robes, handing it to her and motioning for her to continue with what needed to do as he began chanting.

It was strange, to hear Sol chanting _their_ incantation. She'd only heard it whispered on Django's breath, when they were at his home after the sun had gone down, speaking the linguistics in common tongue so that no magic threatened to sweep them away.

She cut her palm with the knife, wincing softly as she let her blood fall onto the runes. She hadn't liked the idea of using such a dark magic, but by traveling through the realms the gods-or spirits, creatures, entities with enough power to pretend to be a god-that ruled them grew upset. She had to offer them some sort of recompense, and Django had convinced her. He'd written that part of the spell.

She pulled the scarf she wore from around her neck and used the knife to saw at it, cutting a segment long enough to tie around her hand before tossing both the knife and the remains of her scarf out of the circle.

She had a moment to realize how inadequately she was dressed, in a blue long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and sneakers. She was going into another _realm_. Anything could be there-and she was going in street clothes?

Sol finished with a dramatic flourish of his hands, and the runes blazed with garnet light. Everything around her warped, went dark, and the next thing she knew she wasn't in the Tower anymore.

She stood in front of a house built into a tree, much like Django's. The tree was colored in reds and blacks, fronds and branches jagged and sinister in the ruby twilight that lit everything around her. The light was reminiscent of how her own world looked when another world passed through it, but a hundred times stronger.

Darker.

To either side of her was a mirror image of the house in front of her, and behind them she could see two more rows of three, two more rows of exact replicas. A pale sort of mist was creeping in, cloaking the jagged wall of stone caging her in with these buildings from her eyes.

Llen whispered a spell beneath her breath, summoning lightning to her wand, before opening the door to the house she stood in front of.

Her fingers shook as she walked down a long narrow hallway devoid of any and all furnishings. It opened into a circular room similarly empty. Sitting on the floor in the center of the room, head bowed and arms crossed over his stomach as if holding a wound, was Django.

A large breath escaped her in a rush and she hurried forward, his name escaping her before she could stop herself. He jerked his head up.

"Are you alright?" She asked, dropping down beside him and grabbing his arm, moving it away from his stomach to see if he was wounded. To her relief, there was nothing. He tensed at her touch, but slowly relaxed. There was a sharpness to his movements that wasn't familiar…but she'd no idea what it was that he had gone through. A shot of terror pierced her suddenly, at the thought of what could have happened to him.

"I'm…fine. What happened? Are you alright?" He pulled his arm free as he spoke, carefully touching the scarf wrapped around her palm. It was stained dark with blood above her cut. She instinctively curled her fingers over it, shaking her head. It throbbed at the movement. His eyes glittered as he stared at her, intent and almost serpentine.

"It isn't important."

She hugged him tightly, relief flooding her. She felt tears prickling at her eyes as he slid his arms around her, returning the embrace.

He was safe.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ The one thing he had always prided himself on was how clinical he was when it came to these hunts. Unlike the rest of his kind, he never grew attached to the prey, the tools he needed to escape banishment once again. His control of himself was unparalleled by any other._

_ And then, in the midst of hibernation after his latest banishment, he'd gotten sloppy. A part of himself had latched onto her power, reaching through the innumerable realms that created their universe just to claim her. _

_And he'd grown accustom to it. By the time he'd woken there was no way for him to let go of the connection-and no desire to. The mistake, however fatal it could become, did not bother him._

_Sensing the magic she was working with was just icing on the cake. When this hunt was over, when she died at his hand, he would have a way to escape without ever going through the trouble of another hunt again._

_But putting a face to the power was…strange._

_She was human, like had once been, her green eyes wide and blonde hair tied back behind her head messily, strands hanging in her face. Her magic, so much more potent now that he was directly before her instead of thousands of realms away, blazed like a raging inferno inside of her, shot through with tendrils of his own power. It shocked him that she hadn't noticed his interference yet._

_A stroke of luck on his part, that her teachers were so incompetent, that fate had chosen to put her in a location where she would never learn to master her full potential. Or, perhaps she had grown used to his touch too. Perhaps she, subconsciously, had accepted it._

_She pulled away from him, rubbing at the tears running down her pale cheeks._

_ He was fascinated by her, and he wasn't certain he was fully able to mask that. It was certainly bleeding through his disguise. His behavior was not at all consistent with the wolf's. Her relief, hopefully, would blind her; allow him to escape the first time she tried to leave. He doubted she would stop coming here and leave the wolf, but whoever had sent her here might not give her the option._

_"I'm glad you're alright. What…what happened?" She was nervous asking it, gaze flickering from his to the ground._

_"I'm not entirely sure." He replied softly. He did his best to look confused, unwilling to speak any farther, and it must have worked. She stood, pulling him up with her, and led him out of the building._

_ As soon as he saw the gateway, a wide circle of white and silver light, he knew he wouldn't make it through. His disguise was too weak to pass through the scrutiny of the powerful wizard that had sent her here._

_Still, he took a step forward, a feral smile twisting his lips as he held out a hand. Her fingers still clasping his, she didn't turn as she stepped through. Not until the magic shut down, refusing him entry, when she suddenly found herself falling without him._

_He cursed, jerking back and turning to face the illusion he had created for her._

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

She stumbled out of the circle, barely managing to catch her balance in time.

"Why did you-what happened to him?" She gasped, staring at Sol with wide eyes, the silvery portal behind her glowing a steely grey as the magic became a barrier. Sol frowned at her, as if disappointed.

"Something is trying to break through into our world, Llen. That was not Django. Rather, it was some kind of form-changer. It's very powerful, but its disguise was very weak." Sol lapsed into silence, ignoring her in favor of the thoughts in his mind. Shaking, Llen stared at the portal.

So someone-some_thing_-had abducted him because it knew they would come searching for him.

It was the reality of how easily she had been tricked that left her trembling. He was her closest friend-and she'd fallen for an imposter almost immediately. She knew him better than she knew herself.

And she'd failed him anyway.

"How can I tell the difference?" She asked Principal Sol, her voice cracking.

"Ask him a question only he would know. Unless it's a…Never mind. That's your best bet. Are you ready? I'm going to undo the seal."

He didn't give her a chance to respond-just muttered a spell and then the portal drew her in before she could stop it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ He snarled, beyond furious as she vanished through the portal-again. His failures were growing exponentially and his chances were dwindling. He couldn't access her memories, and as her awareness of him grew his ability to influence her shrank._

_He stormed into the illusion in which he kept the wolf, magically bound to one spot on the floor._

_"She's not as stupid as you think she is." The wolf growled. He knew he needed to get his emotions under control and think of a-_

_-solution._

_His gaze went to the wolf. Sometimes he forgot what it was he was. What power he held. Since this interest with her had taken hold of him, things he would have never before missed slipped by him easily._

_But, should he do it? Such powerful magics would kill most of his kind. But, of course, he could drain her reserves, if his were not sufficient enough._

_But she would notice._

_The holes in this patchwork plan were gaping, but he couldn't think of anything better._

_"I would never think her stupid." He murmured, gaze thoughtful as he stared at the wolf._

_"What?" The wolf snarled, bristling._

_A slight smile twitched into existence on his lips, although there was no real emotion behind it._

_"I cannot say I am…remorseful. But rest assured you will die for her." He said softly, taking a step forward. The wolf's eyes went wide, but he was too fast._

_Power rushed to his hand, his limb went through the wolf's chest, and the very fabric of existence began to unravel._

_The last thing he was aware of, before the wolf's memories and thoughts crowded into his mind, was a burst of respect for the doomed faunus. Out of the hundreds of emotions the wolf could have felt, there had been no fear-for himself._

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

The cost of traveling so often between realms was beginning to take its toll on her. Her eyelids dropped, limbs heavy with fatigue. Her bones ached harshly with the strain, her magic fleeing her body and leaving her without a drop-not enough to cast the lighting spell that was now locked at the ready in her wand.

She hadn't expected this drain. They hadn't written it into the incantation.

"…Llen?" Django's voice called hoarsely. She froze for a moment, a shudder running down her spine. She hated this. Seeing his face change, alien emotions replacing the smile that she knew so well.

She left the hallway hesitantly.

This was by far the most horrible version of Django she had seen yet. There were no visible marks on him, but he was sprawled across the ground as if he had been struck, limbs twitching slightly as if he had been shocked by her spell.

Her wand dropped. With the charge no longer held, the spell fired off at a wall. With no magic left for it, a burst of agony shocked her. She stumbled back, feeling blood gushing from her nose, tasting it on her tongue. The spell was taking her vitality.

She was hardly aware of what happened next-falling, frantic whispers and someone moving her. The sound of tearing, cloth being ripped, caught her attention.

Django was leaning over her, eyes lit with terror. Weakly, she tried to push him away. _This was not him_.

"Llen, stop." The fear in his voice was-as much as she didn't want to think it-real.

_This couldn't be him_.

"Get-get away-"

"_Llen!_" She ignored him, jerking away. Her head swam with the movement, every part of her screaming at her to stop.

"No." She whispered, too weak to shake her head.

"Please-you're bleeding."

She struggled silently with her thoughts, trying to focus.

This was not Django.

_"Ask him a question only he would know."_

"What did you say to me before I took Vlad's Trial?"

"Llen-"

"_What did you say_?" She repeated, jerking away when he reached out to her. He regarded her silently for a long moment, anguish visible in his gaze. He appeared as Django himself would, if she was as injured as she was now.

"I said I'd wait for you at the door. And then you yelled at me because it's a gateway, not a door."

Such a small thing, that conversation. She only asked about it because she was as scared now as she had been then, walking into a house full of ghosts.

But her tears surprised even her.

She didn't say anything, just hugged him tightly, terrified that he could disappear, that a second later it wouldn't be him.

"It'll be alright. Come on, Llen. Let's go."

He helped her stand-she could barley do it, even with his help. Django handed her the bits of cloth, helped her take care of as much of the blood, still flowing as it was, as possible. She whispered directions to the portal, head swimming with fatigue, vision going black at moments. She let him lead her through the copse of tree houses, back into the world they both called home.


End file.
